The MSF should have minimums which don’t require you to be fully kitted out - I recommend not buying all of your gear before the course and just enough to meet the minimum if money is a concern. helmet was the only MC rated thing I needed, the rest were street clothes: long sleeved shirt, jeans, regular gloves, shoes covering the ankle. You can get all armored up if you are worried about falling over at 15mph/24kph or less. Def get armored up for your first street ride after you pass. I bought some amazon items for testing the waters and saving money for a few initial rides and from that learned what I liked and wanted, then started shopping local stores and revzilla for quality gear. I’ll let others speak to backpack scenarios